Who's Online

Puppy with upset tummy...

Kula has been doing great...eating well, working really hard on house training and obedience training...he's such a great little pup!

We did make the mistake of giving him a pig's ear on Saturday....did it on the advice of a friend and didn't research it enough....well, of course he loved it, but got horrible diarrhea from it.

I was already adding pumpkin to his food since he's switching over to Wellness. The vet recommended strict boiled chicken and rice or boiled ground beef and rice (she thinks I'm a little "off" to give him the pumpkin at all, but it was working). But it's been 4 days now and he still has very runny stools. Should I just go back to his Wellness and pumpkin or continue with the chicken and rice until his stools are firm again? I'm just wondering if the switch from Wellness to the "upset tummy diet" isn't just making the loose stools worse because he's having to adjust to yet another new food????

He is acting completely fine and hasn't had any poop accidents in the house....just goes frequently outside and it's VERY runny.

At this point, if you are on the rice and chicken, I would stay with that until the stools firm up. Then mix in the new food for a day or so, then go to all kibble food. If I remember right, you have a cock-a-poo, as I do. Mine has a pretty weak tummy too for rawhide and pigs ears. I still give him the pressed rawhide when he is driving me nuts for something to chew. But I only let him have it for a little while and then I take it away.

EDIT: I defer to Minniyar - she has far more experience than me. But I would still limit the rawhide and other chews that they eat.

the chicken and rice should not be causing the diarrhea. it should be having the opposite effect. if he is still having diarrhea maybe add the pumpkin to the chicken and rice and see if that helps. sometimes a blan diet isn't enough and they need an added medication. poor puppers

Nope, not doing the pumpkin with the chicken and rice. I just hate to keep switching back and forth....if I keep him on the chicken and rice I'm afraid we may have to go through this all over again when it comes time to go back to Wellness.

Yep, Kula is a cockapoo (good memory!) and I've been warned about small dogs' tendency to be picky eaters with sensitive tummies. Guess I learned my lesson about the pig's ear...poor little guy was just miserable Saturday night!

I can tell you mine is not a picky eater - then again, I don't allow him a choice about what he is eating. His sensitive tummy has been a source of several of my posts.

At first I was feeding a food called Avo Derm (that was what the shelter was feeding him when I adopted him, so I didn't switch when I first brought him home.) Then he got horrible gas. So I talked to my local pet food store and they suggested I feed him a food like Innova cause it didn't have Corn and they told me many dogs can't handle corn.

So I switched to Innova. The gas was better, but Duncan never had normal stools. They were always sort of loose. Finally after he had diahrrea in the house one night, I decided I needed to find something else.

For a bit I was mixing his Innova with pumpkin while I researched some more foods. I found out that Innova can just be too rich for some dogs. So I talked to his trainer who told me that her dogs couldn't eat Innova either because some dogs don't do well with Turkey. Turkey is the first ingredient in Innova.

OK - so now I am being told no cheap, grocery store food of course, no corn, no Turkey. I swear this is like high level calculus to find a dog food for heaven's sake. Anyway - now I am trying a food called Prairie. There is no corn, no turkey, and believe me it is not a cheap food. I am mixing pumpkin in the evening and straight kibble in the morning. Soon we will go straight kibble.

I should also tell you that I was also told that overfeeding can cause stomache distress as well.

Poor Duncan and poor you! You're right...figuring out what's best requires way more time than any of us have, but what a good mom you are to keep trying to find the perfect match.

I think I'll try adding some pumpkin tonight and tomorrow morning, then slowly adding back the kibble. I won't mention the pumpkin to the vet at all...she seems to think I'm some holistic freak or something! I just know that it worked before, and within just a couple of meals.

What a coincidence! I am also switching Kiba's (Miniature Schnauzer) food from Eukanuba to Wellness.

I'm mixing in pumpkin too with a little bit of cut up turkey. At first she was going off and on but now seems to be better. Hopefully soon I'll get her off the pumpkin and just on the Wellness puppy food.